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The Shadow Sessions [OOC]

>>Logging in...>>Loading message...>>Opening message...>>Can't you hear it? There is a tune floating on the breeze. It creeps down the lonely alleyways and fills the darkness with its solemn song. The humming of the dead intertwines with the rhythm of life. The story of this world is sung in such a clear and mournful sound. It sings of those whose names are now forgotten. It sings of those whose dreams were swallowed by time.>>It sings of those who run in the wake of the shadows.

The Shadow Sessions

The Shadow Sessions is my first foray into the world of GM'ing, and the best way for me to learn is to jump right in. Here, I will exercise my imagination as well as lead a game for those who wish to play. The story is inspired by some of my favorite shows (Cowboy Bebop and Leverage, to name a few) and will be done in episodic format. I wish to make this game very roleplay-oriented, so I would like players who can commit to developing their character through the story. This game is mainly for newer players who wish to join a new GM and start playing as well, but I also welcome the wisdom of more experienced players.

The OOC thread will be used for recruitment, dice rolls, FAQs, and notices.

Information

System

Shadowrun 5e

Setting

Seattle

Various cities/countries [TBA]

SynopsisThis is the story of lost souls wandering the streets of Seattle 2075. They are connected by a string that none of them can see now, but fate will reveal them in due time. But for now, they are strangers to each other and maybe even themselves. Soon, they will receive a call, gathering them in a single place where not only will they be tested, but their futures will be determined.

Ammo Supply - All regular ammo is free. You do not need to purchase them at chargen, nor do you need to roll for tests involving regular ammo. Everything else must be purchased.

Wardrobe - Clothing costs are rolled into your lifestyle costs. These include those under the Clothing section of the Armor table on pg. 436. Please customize your clothing as it fits into your lifestyle.

Technomancer Redux - I will be running Abschalten's Technomancer Redux to make Technomancers viable at chargen.

Contact Listing - Each player will be granted three free contacts with the maximum Loyalty+Connection of 6. This will replace the original rules of contact points = CHA.

Natural Recovery - Edge and Stun damage will be recovered in between each session. Roll Body test where each hit recovers 1 box of Physical damage.

Down Time - Karma purchases will be done through PMs in between each session to avoid clutter in OOC. I will make note of any changes you make. Because of this, there will be no waiting time in training. If you have the karma and you bought it, you immediately will have it.

Recruitment

Must be a dedicated poster

Must be willing to put effort into their roleplay

New or experienced players welcome

Write a short summary/background of your character, and the full character sheet in spoiler tags

Please indicate where you put your points into so that I can double check easily

It is a good idea to describe the personality or history of your contacts so that I have a good idea how to handle them

Any space, whether it be in your background or contacts, will be filled in by me

IC Formatting

Orange/bold for the date and time/place/address in brackets separated by parallel bars in the beginning of each post ([date&time|place|area])

I will tell you either in OOC or at the GM IC post what tests you need to roll for. Please roll first, then write your post based on your successes/failures. We will be using the Invisible Castle dice roller for accountability. All dice rolls will be posted here in the OOC thread, not in the IC thread.

For combat, I will respond to each of you one at a time depending on the action you take. You may detail free actions in the same post as your simple/complex actions.

I've got a concept I've been mulling over for a while. Here's a quick overview of the background

Dacre Jordan - Human Adept Cat Burglar / Secondary Con ArtistDacre grew up as a guttersnipe roaming the streets of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. As far back as he could remember he’d never had any family or even anyone he could really call a friend. Over the years as he grew up he noticed he seemed to have some innate advantages over the other urchins he didn’t understand. His advantages allowed him to go for more and more risky targets to steal from, until one day he screws up and gets caught. Luckily for him it turns out the nob that caught him was actually a thief working a long con. Impressed by how well he managed to sneak into their base the head honcho recruits him onto the crew and starts teaching him how to talk and act like a corporate man.

A few more years pass as he works for the crew, Dacre’s skills advancing rapidly. For one particular heist the crew hires a mage, he quickly notices that Dacre is actually an adept and has managed to unconsciously access some of this powers. Realising that his adept powers were where his advantages over the other street urchins came from Dacre joins a local adept circle? to learn to better harness his powers. With his increased skill set he starts doing some side jobs outside the con crew, working as a part time shadow runner.

One day a big con against Troliod (an A ranked corp) goes wrong and half the crew is killed in the ensuing firefight. Dacre manages to get away but has to flee the city, leaving behind everything except what he has on his back. On the way out he does manage to stop by his local fixer and get a recommendation to a fixer in Seattle. Making it to Seattle a few weeks later he spends a few nights at a friends place before finding a cramped little apartment of his own. He also manages to make contact with a local branch of the adept circle he trained with back in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Contacts Fixer (Loyalty 2, Connection 4) - Don't really care, probably the point of contact with the others. Friend (Loyalty 5, Connection 1) - Also a rags to riches story, a hacker that just works from home on low risk ventures. Very smart and skilled enough in the decker side at least to shadowrun, but cowardly and without much in the way of real-world skills. Adept Mentor (Loyalty 3, Connection 3) - Sort of a calm guru type. Runs a semi-gray circle, some members hold valid sins while others don't. They stay away from any association with shadow running or corp sponsorship to try and stay as a neutral group.

I'd like to throw my hat in the ring, too. Got a couple character concepts that I'd like to try. . . for this one, I was thinking my combat medic. Basically a combination street doc & weapon specialist.

Character Concept: Ivan Ivanovich, one-time boxer and Vory enforcer. Now on the lam having managed to make himself persona non grata with no less than two different factions within the Seattle Vory. Being able to punch things really, really hard has always been a valued asset and Ivan figures it's only a matter of time before he finds work, assuming he can stay alive that long.

CONTACTS & REP (Three Free @ 6 combined C/L)The Matryoshka, Variable Race Female Fixers (4/1): A somewhat mysterious cabal of fixers, the Matryoshka are five female metahumans, one representing each of the major metahuman races. The women have undergone cosmetic surgery to appear as similar to one another as possible and dress in the exact same Neo-Russian peasant garb. Only one of the Matryoshka ever shows up for any given meet, but they seem to share their dealings with one another as one knows what the others know. They deal extensively with the Vory but also fix jobs for a variety of private individuals and corporations.

Jessica Hernandez, Female Elf Prostitute (2/3): Jessica is an elf prostitute working the Touristville section of the Redmond Barrens. Ivan is a regular client of hers. They have developed a good business relationship and Jessica is willing to take a few changes to keep the nuyen flowing. She realizes his present circumstances prevent their regular business transactions, but knows that when he gets back on his feet, she'll be off hers.

Bruno Veraducci, Male Ork Boxing Promoter (3/2): Bruno was one of the first non-Vory acquaintances Ivan made in Seattle. Naturally, their association started through boxing. Bruno owns a small boxing gym in Puyallup and manages a small stable of fighters. During Ivan's down time, he would frequently visit Bruno's to spar and chat about the great gloves of the past.

Description: Here comes trouble with a capital Troll. Maybe itís the somewhat cheap-looking dark suit combined with his lumbering gait, but something about the guy gives you the distinct impression that he is not Corp. Come to think about it, youíve never seen a wageslave with intricately carved, forward swept horns depicting scenes from boxing history. Is that Mohammad Ali on the right horn? Like many trolls, he seems to have gone for the shaved head look, probably to emphasize his horns. The mirrored sunglasses he wears complete the look of someone youíd rather not frag with.

Personality: Not much of one, Knockout is typically a ďPunch First, Ask Questions LaterĒ kind of guy. His time with the Vory did teach him a few societal conventions, but you definitely donít want him leading negotiations (unless the point is to start a fight). Knockoutís a bit more reserved since his dust-up with the Vory; finally realizing that his actions can have greater consequences outside of the current situation. He is rather talkative about the sport of boxing and, if it ever comes up, starts chattering like a schoolgirl gossiping to her friends.

Background: Ivan Ivanovich was born in the dirty streets of Vladivostock, Russia. His mother and father abandoned him on the steps of an Eastern Orthodox orphanage. Fairly violent as a child, Ivan was routinely disciplined by the nuns. When he goblinized at 9 years old, the frequency and severity of the fights Ivan was involved in grew significantly. The nuns realized that they would be unable to discipline him given his change and turned him over to a local boxing instructor, Dmitry Koranavich, in hopes he would be able to better direct Ivanís violent behavior into something slightly more constructive.

Dmitry quickly spotted Ivanís natural talent and started to train him while the troll lived and worked in the boxing gym. The troll quickly gained a reputation for quick knockouts and was entered into contests as soon as he was of age, dubbing him Ursa Minor. During this time, Dmitry recognized that part of Ivanís skill was due to the fact that he was an Awakened adept and explained what that meant to the troll. The next several years of Ivanís life were the highlights in an otherwise bleak existence. He won acclaim for his skills in the ring and prize money for his frequent wins. Unfortunately for Ivan, Dmitry had a bit of a dark past himself.

After a prize fight when he was 23 years old, a group of men in dark suits entered his dressing room to speak to Dmitry. Ivan had occasionally seen some of the men hanging around the gym and had been told that they were members of the Vory, a Russian organized crime group. Telling the old man that it was time he paid his debt, the men gave Dmitry two options: he could pay with his life or with Ivanís. Shaking his head sadly, he gave Ivan to them as payment. Shocked at the situation, Ivan was taken by complete surprise when one of the men stabbed him with a syringe filled with a double dose of Narcoject.

When Ivan next woke up, he was in Seattle, UCAS. His new masters quickly laid out their expectations: Ivan was to become a Vory enforcer and engage in the myriad illicit activities in which they were involved. Given his inability to speak English and lack of familiarity with the area, Ivan acquiesced to their demands and started his new life. The Vory supplied him with a fake identity as a bodyguard and living quarters. In return, Ivan served as the muscle on a number of Vory operations, breaking doors and legs with equal regularity. Ivan was not necessarily proud of his new life, but it allowed him to make ends meet and live a relatively comfortable lifestyle; at least he wasnít living on the streets.

Everything came crashing down two years later. Infighting among the local Vory turned into an all-out civil war and sides were chosen. Ivan wasnít much for taking sides and asked to be left out of the internal conflict, pledging that he would work for whoever won. This wasnít an acceptable answer for either side and Ivan became a marked target. Fighting off attacks from both sides, Ivan did an impressive amount of damage to both groups before fading into the shadows as best he could. With little money, poor language skills, and an undeserved bad reputation as a turncoat, Ivan is desperate for work and has gone to the only contact he has left, the mysterious cabal of fixers known as the Matryoshka.[/Spoiler]

I was going to see if I made it before I added them. Also, can you explain how that works? Sorry, I'm a little dense sometimes. Does it mean that I can take three free contacts with a total of 6 C/L points each or total?

P.S. I really dig those TM changes. I was considering modifying my TM with them and submitting.

Wait, does this replace the points from Charisma? I spent those three points (his CHA was originally at 1, bumped to 2 with karma, which I didn't spell out) on the Matryoshka contact and then pumped it up with two karma. Then I picked up the other three contacts. I'll edit for clarity. If the free contacts replace the Charisma bonus points, I can change things around as well.

ETA: I can also change the Matryoshka contact. I conceived of it and figured I would use it in one of my own games. Basically, it's a network of 5 female fixers (dwarf, human, elf, ork, troll) who have had cosmetic surgery to look the same. They also dress the same in a sort of neo-Russian peasant garb. A player's connection rating with one of the Matryoshka is the same for all of them and they are treated as one contact for all intents and purposes. (Basically, they are based on the Russian Matryoshka Dolls). I can gladly change the contact if you don't want to play with them.

So here's what I came up with (Jack, I stole your formatting. Hope you don't mind!). Owen Night Owl, aka Cross, was a Doc Wagon High Threat Response extraction team member. He was on call one night when his team responded to a Gold-level distress signal, and pulled a beautiful elven shadowrunner out of a tight spot with a corporate security team. Despite company policy, they got into a relationship. . . until she disappeared during a run. No matter the cost, Cross is now determined to find her. . . or at least what's left of her.

DESCRIPTION: Some people can walk down the street, minding their own business, yet scream "dangerous." Owen is one of those guys. He is powerfully built (for a human), but still slender; words like "sleek" and "predatory" come to mind. He's got close-cropped brown hair and a dusky complexion -- you've seen enough AmerInds walking Seattle's streets to recognize one -- and he's loaded for bear. A black leather-fronted jacket does little to conceal the tactical vest he's wearing that's loaded with guns, knives, spare magazines, and grenades. All this combined with the hard set of his jaw and the near-desperate looking in his (artfully lifelike-looking) eyes means that he sets that standard for "not to be fragged with." Incongruously, there's a heavy pouch strapped to his thigh marked with a big red cross...

HISTORY: Owen is a native of Buffalo, New York, and a descendant of the original Mohawk Tribe. That the Mohawk -- as well as all the other East Coast tribes, for that matter -- didn't get the same deal as the Sioux, Apache, and Pueblo never sat right with the family. Rather than take it out on the other tribes or the UCAS, they decided to go where the tribes and UCAS society merged: Seattle.

Owen was always an altruistic sort, and trained as an EMT through an "on the job training" program with Doc Wagon. A few years of medical school and some serious time with the security training team got him a spot on the high-risk, high-reward High Threat Response teams.

One day, responding to a biomonitor-induced emergency call, Owen and his team fast-roped into a warzone. A runner team was getting the drek kicked out of it by some faceless corp goon-squad. The only two runners still alive were Vic Macintosh and a fire-haired elven beauty named Faye Cordell (Faye, their extractee, was unconscious and bleeding out at the time). Seeing that the dwarf was doomed without help, Owen went against policy (and orders!) and pulled both Faye and Vic into the company helicopter. He then set about saving Faye's life, patching her up and stabilizing her before she could expire.

To put it simply, he was enraptured with her. When she had recovered, she'd initially agreed to go out with him as a gesture of thanks for saving her life, but as the relationship continued, the feelings appeared to become mutual. He still worked HRT and she still ran the shadows, but things were going wonderfully. . . until she disappeared without a trace during a run. Victor had since retired and bought a bar with his life savings, but the two of them proceeded to spend almost every spare nuyen available trying to find Faye, with no luck. Growing desperate, Owen quit Doc Wagon and, with Vic's help, set himself up as a shadowrunner. If he couldn't find Faye from the outside looking in, he decided to just dive into the deepest shadows he could find and look a little closer.

@JackYeah, it replaces the CHA rule. I made it clearer up in the OP. Also, I would be totally okay with playing a group of people acting as a single contact. That should lead to some interesting bits of dialogue. Make sure you note how many points you put into each attribute so that I can double check your sheet.

@Red_CapMake sure you note how many points you put into each attribute so that I can double check your sheet. Also, we will be rolling for starting nuyen when I have chosen the players. I won't ask you to reroll, but do be aware that I am going to use Invisible Castle to keep track of the dice rolls. Funnily enough, I'm actually training to be an EMT right now.

@Everyone elseSo far, I'm glad with the reception that this is getting. I will note that it would be nice if someone decided to play a character that is versed in the ways of the Matrix to balance the characters I see right now.